


"I need you to look after her because I can't"

by elainebarrish



Category: Scott & Bailey
Genre: F/F, idk what this is blame the otp prompts blog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 01:44:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2450069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elainebarrish/pseuds/elainebarrish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When you get there you open the door slowly and you find Gill sat on the counter with her knees up, leaning against the mirror looking miserable. You can still hear the thunder even in here, and whenever it echoes around the building she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath."</p><p>The one in which Gill is afraid of thunderstorms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I need you to look after her because I can't"

You're not paying attention as the thunderstorm starts, you're listening to cheesy 80's pop through your headphones and you don't even look up when Gill walks past you, don't notice that her face is white as a sheet and she looks, well, terrified. You don't look up until you faintly hear someone's ringtone and it doesn't turn off immediately, and you're rising to answer it as it cuts off and then starts again. You hesitantly step into Gill's office to find that she isn't there, that she must have left while you weren't paying attention, but her phone and coat and bag are all still in here, and the shrill ringtone is still cutting through the air. The screen says Sammy so you answer it, worried that there may be some sort of emergency.  
"Mum?"  
"No, I'm sorry, it's Rachel, I don't know where she is. She'll be back though, she left everything in her office."  
"Oh we met briefly at my engagement party," he remembers, and you're surprised that he bothered to learn who you were, considering that the place had been full of his friends, and family members, and Gill had invited quite a few work colleagues.  
"I'm surprised you remember."  
"Mum's mentioned you a few times," you could practically hear his shrug. "Anyway the news said it was going to thunderstorm tonight so I thought I'd call."  
"It is pissing it down but I don't -" you're interrupted by a flash. "Oh yep thunder and lightning."  
"You need to find mum, she'll be freaking out."  
"What do you - oh she's scared of thunderstorms?" You're startled into stillness for a moment, the smile driven off your face. Gill Murray being scared of anything seemed like an impossibility, and you almost want to laugh at the idea, thunderstorms, of all things? But the longer you consider it the more it seems to make sense, that the one thing that she couldn't control, that had honestly killed people whether you wanted it to or not, the one thing that she couldn't tell what to do. "Where do you think she'll be? She's left all of her stuff here so she's in the building."  
"Somewhere that doesn't have windows, somewhere she spends a lot of time in. I need you to look after her because I can't," he sighs down the line and you realise he feels terrible, that he wishes he could be here to do whatever he usually did in this situation.  
"Bathroom?" You suggest and he agrees, so suddenly you're rushing through the station, looking for her. When you get there you open the door slowly and you find Gill sat on the counter with her knees up, leaning against the mirror looking miserable. You can still hear the thunder even in here, and whenever it echoes around the building she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She looks surprised to see you, even more surprised when you hand her the phone and come to stand close to her, trying to be reassuring while not knowing what she would allow.  
"Hi Sammy," she looks relieved that he's called her and you smile, glad that she has something to concentrate on. You stay for their conversation, and are surprised when the phone gets handed back to you.  
"Don't leave her alone tonight."  
"But how am I -"  
"Take her to yours. I've already told her that that's what has to happen, and she's going to be stubborn but otherwise she won't get any sleep and she's always worse for wear for a few days after a big thunderstorm like this." You're listening to him but you're looking at her and you realise he's right, that she'll try to resist showing any kind of weakness to you, that otherwise she probably would have spent the night frozen stiff on the counter, preferring to stay at work where she knows there are other people in the building rather than going home to where she'd be alone.  
"Sammy I'm not sure I'm the right person for the job."  
"At this moment you're the only person. She trusts you, and she likes you, she's told me, okay? I'll call tomorrow but I have to go out now and then I've got an early lecture so I can't stay up with her like I would when I was younger. I need you to look after her because I can't," he repeats, and he sounds so earnest and hopeful and Gill looks so small, so you agree and hang up, slipping the phone into your pocket.  
"Okay Boss we're going to mine." You announce and hold out a hand to help her off the counter, which she mutely takes, her eyes widening in surprise. You don't let go as you walk through the station, and when you do it's only to help her into her coat, ignoring the paperwork that was still spread out on both of your desks. There was always time, and you cared much more about getting her to yours safely than about that report that was due tomorrow morning. You cared about her much more than your job, and that realisation probably shouldn't have been news to you, but until then you'd been ignoring your feelings so well, and you went back to ignoring them as you grabbed her hand again, leading the way through the building.  
You paused near the doors and turned to look at her, wondering what the best way to take her to your car would be. She takes a deep breath and then gives you a minute nod, and you squeeze her hand reassuringly as you lead the way out the doors, out to your car. You both pile in and she sighs, and you reach out to touch her shoulder, still trying to be as reassuring as you can.

You can tell that she's relieved for once that you drive like a bat out of hell, that she's glad to have something else to concentrate on, like fervently wishing that you won't kill her as you skid on the wet roads. You're pulling up outside yours before you know it, and when you check your watch you see it's half ten, and that you’d probably be going to bed in about half an hour if this was a normal day. You know you both have work tomorrow, and that going to bed sooner rather than later is probably a good idea.  
“Have you eaten?” You ask softly, noticing how weird it is for her to be stood here in your living room, handbag in one hand and coat in the other. You hang up the latter and indicate for her to throw the former wherever she wants, and she shakes her head no, still quiet.  
“I suppose it would be too much to hope for that you can cook, wouldn’t it?” you laugh and wonder if she likes cereal, because that’s what you’d usually be eating at this time.  
“No I’m afraid not,” her voice is quieter than normal but it’s the first time she’s spoken since she was on the phone with Sammy, and you’re taking it as a good sign.  
“I have cereal?” You say weakly and she rolls her eyes, kicking her shoes off and leading the way into your kitchen, taking control of the situation even now, and you let her because it’s good for her to have something to distract her. “Oh I might have a frozen pizza actually, everyone likes pizza right?” You joke weakly, but she rolls her eyes again and nods so you quickly sort that out and pull a bottle of wine from somewhere, directing her to the glasses cupboard and then through to the living room. You turn the TV on because you don’t know what else to do, and you hope it’ll distract her, and you sit close enough that you can feel her body heat, under the pretense of trying to be comforting. If you’re honest it’s just because you like sitting close to her, and part of you is glad for this surprise glance at who she is under the disguise of Godzilla.  
She steals the remote off of you with a small smirk, and you just roll your eyes as she irritably flicks through the channels, not stopping until she found a random film that looked to be close to the beginning. Neither of you are paying attention to it, but you hope it’s taking her mind off of the storm you can still hear raging outside. You’re both startled by the oven timer, and you laugh at the fact that you jumped. “Any particular preference in regards to pizza slice size?”  
“I prefer them to be exactly 5cm across the top,” she replies sarcastically, and you’re laughing even as you roll your eyes for what feels like the 100th time.  
You’re both quiet as you eat your pizza, and you try to watch the screen as much as possible, knowing that otherwise you’ll just end up staring at her, and she doesn’t need to start thinking you’re creepy too, on top of all of the things that she already thinks about you, on top of the fact that you’re trying to take care of her. You are glad to notice that she looks better than before, that she looks less miserable and less like she's about to pass out.  
By half eleven you're both curled up in the middle of the sofa practically asleep as the film continues inanely in the background, and she's stopped jumping whenever there's a flash or a loud noise. You figure you should probably move to your room, and that thought is followed by the realisation that you're going to have to lend her pyjamas, and you're going to somehow need to convince her to let the two of you share. It's a double bed, there's more than enough space, and you know that just having someone in the room with you will make it better for her.  
"Come on, we're going to bed, I'll lend you some pyjamas and I think I've got an unused toothbrush hanging around here somewhere."

You're already in bed when she emerges in your doorway, looking adorable in a tshirt that is a veritable tent on her and plaid bottoms that are so long it looks like she could fall over them. She looks small and adorable, and you can't help yourself. "You look adorable." She just glares at you in response and gets into bed on the other side, and the two of you take up positions as far away from each other as possible.  
"Light on or off?"  
"On, it stops me from being able to see the flashing," she paused for a long moment. "Can you just, distract me? Trying to go to sleep while thinking about it is harder than when I'm distracted." You noticed that she'd mostly covered her head with the duvet, and you wriggled down so that you were underneath it too, sealing it over your heads so that the both of you were surrounded by a soft orangey glow. You realise she smells like your own toothpaste and the remnants of her perfume from earlier in the day.  
"Did I tell you about that guy that called me a lesbian the other day?"  
"I don't believe you did, no," she looks faintly amused and you take that as an invitation to continue.  
"So he runs and I chase him down and then he assaults me because they seem to think that that usually helps or something, and then I get him on the floor and he goes " get off me you lesbian!" and I'm just confused and vaguely horrified, like I don't look like a lesbian do I?" Gill is laughing and you grin, glad that you were at least helping while you embarrassed yourself.  
"That depends, were you wearing your bulletproof vest with your hair up because you do look rather soft butch then."  
"I wish I could say I was offended but you're right," you laughed. "It's not even the first time people used to say it basically every day back when I was in uniform."  
"They always do," she laughed. "Everyone just used to remark on how tiny I was, especially as one of the only women in my division. I was a good foot shorter than a lot of the lads I was working with."  
"Aw baby Godzilla, out on the streets, saving the day," you teased and she rolled her eyes.

The two of you exchanged anecdotes for a while, mostly about work but a few of them more personal, and at some point you must have fallen asleep because when you wake up she's snuggled into your side, your arms wrapped around her and your legs twined together. The lightning has stopped and sunlight is streaming into your room, and even though the main light is still on you can see the patterns it makes on Gill's pillow. "Gill's pillow" makes your tummy flip, and you can't help but think about how much you want that to permanently become her pillow, how you want to be there for her through other thunderstorms and after particularly bad cases and whenever she needs someone to rely on, as rare as that is. You have no idea what time it is and you don't want to move and disturb her to check, but you figure considering your boss would be late too she won't be that annoyed, and if she hasn't woken up yet then she must be tired.

You're dozing, grinning to yourself thinking about cutesy domestic things happening with the woman in your arms when she shifts a little closer, sleepily burying her face in your chest. Eventually she seems to realise that she's being held by something warm and alive, and soon she's blinking owlishly up at you, though she hasn't moved away.  
"Morning," she mutters and you want to grin at her, to laugh at how ridiculous this entire thing is, that you're waking up in bed with your adorable superior that you're in love with and you haven't even managed to kiss her yet. You're thinking about remedying that tragic oversight when she rolls onto her front, propping herself up on her elbows.  
"Thank you for looking after me, last night," she looked down, and you're struck by how messy her hair is and how that somehow makes her ever cuter, even though you weren't sure that that was something that could happen. "You didn't have to."  
"I wanted to," you shrugged, and you were aware that your arm was still around her, draped around her lower back, and that she was basically hovering over you. It would be so easy to pull her face down to yours, or raise yours to hers, and you're still just imagining doing so, looking at her lips and thinking about what it would be like, when she smirks and leans forward slightly.  
"I don't suppose I could possibly repay you for your admirable effort in taking care of me?" You note the way her voice is lower, and she's practically smouldering at you.  
"I might be able to think of some ways," you manage, and you're kissing and you're smiling against her mouth and you don't even care about morning breath or whatever because she just smells like Gill and she's so tiny but solid against you and you almost can't believe this is the woman that terrifies grown men daily. When you part for breath you feel like your eyes must have cartoon hearts in them or that you're actually physically sparkling at her, and she's looking at you like you're the only thing she's thinking about, like she's not thinking about work or how much trouble you could get in, and you're grinning at her so much that she rolls her eyes, but that's the unmistakable starting of a smile, and you're laughing as you try to memorise her face and her expression and even her stupid hair in this moment, and soon you're kissing again and you can barely think, barely breathe, and the sun is warm on your face and you can't believe that until five minutes ago you lived without this.


End file.
